All or almost all of the currently known alert systems are limited, especially in high noise areas of plant and facilities, in trying to mitigate the noise levels produced by the equipment and/or processing in an immediate vicinity where workers are located.
Further exacerbating this issue, is the fact the workers are issued hearing protection to protect against hearing loss. Typically, these are in the form-factor of “earmuffs” made of hardened plastic ear cups, with foam filling, that provide about +25 dB sound reduction to the worker. These earmuffs can be worn outside of, inside of, or on (via clips on the left and right side), their construction hard-hats. As a result of this, many large companies, in processing industries, spend money on a) additional sound producing speakers and/or sirens to overcome the ambient noise, or b) add visual indicators to alert workers.
Neither approach does a sufficient job in providing alert and notification to protect workers. The additional sound is typically not enough to differentiate from the ambient noise, and is less effective if the worker wears sound hearing protection equipment. The visual alerts are only effective if in the visual field of the workers.
The workplace has also experimented with integrated radios in the headset. This can perform the required alert and notification within the hearing range of the user. However, it is not an integrated device in the alert and notification system per se, and would require separate systems integration and separate radio channels dedicated to that purpose, especially for targeted and addressed broadcasts to specific areas where an emergency exists and/or a proximity limit was exceeded.
Therefore, while numerous devices and methods for alert and notification in high noise areas are known in the art, all or almost all of them, suffer from one or more disadvantages. Therefore, there is still a need for improved devices and methods to provide alert and notification to personnel in high noise environments.